Tips On Marking Scriptures

[WillowTheWhisp]

I underline some things which have a specific impact on me. I also make notes in the margins. I have a colour coded system for different topics such as 'second coming/millenium', 'missionary work/teaching', parables, priesthood, prophecy etc. I also have stickers which are see through pictures to attract attention to specific scriptures.(some of these are seminary related)

I think how you mark them is a personal thing which evolves in relation to how best it helps you personally with your scripture study. I have a very tatty old quad which is so thoroughly read and re-read and marked and written in and mended where pages have come loose. I did my myself a whole new quad not long ago but found it impossible to find things I was looking for as all the familiar old 'landmarks' were missing so I ended up giving the new one to my daughter and going back to my familiar tatty old thing.

[19nazzy]

I mark mine in terms of topics and try to relate the colour to what it is about.

Faith
Baptism
Repentance/Atonement
Jesus Christ
Prayer
Favourite
Miscellaneous

[nickleboyblue]

Some think my system for marking is a little overboard, and I must admit, I am a bit obsessed. Preach My Gospel says that we should find a method of marking that works for us. This is what I've done.

(Note: I DO NOT color-code mark according to subject because when I tried that, I found out very fast that some scriptures have to do with just about everything, and when you want to mark it for the atonement, it's already marked for missionary work, thus making colors very confusing and resulting in confusing boxes, shadings, and who knows what else. Subject color coding is EXTREMELY complex and difficult to stick to as a result, because you have to leave room for other colors every time you mark.)


1: Finding scriptures.
I like to remember where scriptures I have marked are. I have recently purchased a cheap triple soft cover, no metalic page edges, for a very good reason: it helps you when indexing your scriptures. I have written on the twelve inch front face of my scriptures 34 columns, each one representing a different gospel study topic. When I underline or highlight (or both) a scripture, I mark the edge of that page (And I mean the VERY right side edge) inside of the appropriate column, in one of three colors, so that when I close the book, if I want a scripture that has to do with any one of my subjects, I look inside of that column and can see, without opening the book, little slivers of color where the scriptures i have marked are. The colors i use on indexing are: RED for very relevant or useful scriptures, BLUE for semi-relevant, and GREEN for deeper or more difficult scriptures to explain or understand, but that still hold relevance to the subject.

2: Underlining for interpretation
I underline my scriptures with the four-color pens you can find at retailers. Those include red, blue, green, and black. I underline in RED for when God, Christ, the Holy Ghost, or Angels are speaking. In other words, when the source is incorruptible. I underline in BLUE when a prophet or some other inspired person is speaking. I underline in GREEN when uninspired people are speaking, or just to indicate when narrative or event-oriented wording is involved. (Again, note that I do underlining by who is speaking, and not by subject. This helps me interpret scripture sources more quickly and efficiently on the fly)

3: Highlighting for interpretation
I highlight using one of those over-priced, eight-color crayon-pens you can buy at LDS book stores. I use RED simply to place emphasis on a word. I use BLUE and PINK to indicate commandment lists, which helps me differentiate between where one commandment ends and the next one begins in commandment lists. I also use those colors to indicate cause-and-effect relationships between commandments and blessings. Blessings are indicated by YELLOW and LIGHT BLUE, as these often come in lists as well. This helps me when I am discussing promised blessings individually in relation to the commandments those blessings are connected to. ORANGE and GREEN are used to indicate detail lists, such as location details, or to otherwise differentiate between listed items that I deem important and that have no cause-and-effect relationship with anything else in the surrounding scriptures. I use BROWN to indicate satanic/tempting logic, logic that Satan uses to convince people to sin, stratagies used to cause spiritual downfall, etc., so that I can keep my eye out for things that I might be thinking at the time that could lead me on to sin.

4: glue-ins. I am a firm believer in glue-ins that help in gospel study. When I get handouts in church classes or when I discover interesting thoughts or make interesting footnotes, etc., I type out potential glue-ins. When a particular location gets enough glue-in information to mostly cover an entire page, I print out the glue-in, glue the extreme left side of the paper, and place it in the pages of my book so that it will not fall out unless I myself remove it.

5: Reader's footnotes and top-notes, and margin use
I place numbers next to words or phrases that relate to other scriptures but that are not footnoted to those scriptures in the text already. I then place a little arrow next to the little number, pointing up or down, to indicate where one will find the note, if it be on the top margin or the bottom margin. I use the inner-margins for hand-written notes, etc., and I use right-side margins to specify which scriptures that index slivers refer to.

Because of this system of marking, I never prepare talks word-for-word, because I can simply stand up at the podium and share insights and scriptures from my already studied gospel topics columns, and I have external sources, like general authority quotes, interpretation helps (Through marking), and so on, build in to my system.

If you would like to use this system, go for it. It really does help a lot. However, I do suggest that you change it to more perfectly match your own personal needs and goals. Like I said at the beginning, Preach My Gospel states that we each should come up with a system that works for us, and just because this system works for me does not necessarily mean that it works for everyone.

I hope that helps?

[Seanette]

Figures I'd have a system no one else has yet described. I do my marking with Col-Erase erasable pencil, since they come in a wide range of colors and do erase well if I make a mistake.

I have the Seminary Scripture mastery verses boxed in in red pencil (I do plan to learn them, even though I converted too late in life to go to Seminary). I've marked the footnote references by color code (purple for JST references, blue for HEB notes, green for GR notes, yellow for IE notes, orange for OR notes, rose pink for editorial comments, a darker red for BD notes, brown for TG). For me, this works.

I've made some marginal notes on cross-references in whatever color makes sense to me at that time.

[glow_inthe_dark_girl]

you probably would wanna check out this, I found this info very useful

there are some cool techniques here, I use some of them myself..
LDS Scripture Study: Color Coding

LDS Scripture Study: Pictures and Stickers

[pam]

I have a really easy system for me. I see a scripture I like..I underline it in red. haha

[Ezequiel]

I colour code my scriptures to the five lessons from Preach My Gospel

Lesson 1 - The Restoration - blue
Lesson 2 - The plan of Slavation - orange
lesson 3 - The Gospel of Jesus Christ - green
lesson 4 - Commandaments - purple
lesson 5 - Laws and Ordinances - yellow
and then, anything that is of special interest to me, I colour it red.

Also, I differenciate from highlighting a whole verse and underlighting sections of it for highly important matter, highlighting a whole verse for important verse, underlining a verse for less important matter, and and partially hihglighting to even lesser important. I also write brief notes and word son the margins and keep a study journal with me throught all my studies, which I keept pretty organized as well by the five lessons, the cannonical books, and different topics!

It may seem confusing, but really is not at all. Its very clear! I think anything falls into these 5 chategories, or 4 sub chategories of importance to me...

[sixpacktr]

My scripture marking method is very simple, actually. I don't fill in the entire passage, but instead color around the borders. That way, if there is more than one topic (for me) in a passage, I can use more than one color.

Yellow: 1st Principles and Ordinances of the Gospel, Revelation, Inspiration, missionary work
Blue: Christ
Green: Priesthood
Red: Everything else

I underline in pencil areas of the passage I find especially relevant to me (so it is colored and underlined), as well as using a very fine pencil for making notations, comments, etc., alongside or at the top of the page. Sometimes I will simply underline in the appropriate color if I am in the mood to (typically only a line or two in one verse).

Anyway, it works for me.

[Ronster]

I personally have trouble marking in my scriptures, it got to confusing for me and I didn't like the way it looked in my scriptures anyways.

Something I have recently started doing is to take a notebook and convert it to my study journal pretty much. How I have been doing it is I start at the very beginning of the book in verse one, then I write all my thoughts from that verse in my notebook. Then write down verse two and do the same for that, if I found cool cross references I write them down in my note book under the verse I was relating them to. I also am very specific to my self when I write in my notebook, I write how the things in that scripture can relate to me and my life. Sometimes I will read a short verse and then write a couple paragraphs in my notebook about it even if its not even related to the verse, its just the thoughts and personal revelation I felt while reading that verse. Other times I will just write a short sentence that just gives me an important detail of the verse. What I like about this technique is its kind of forcing me to read more into the actual context of the scriptures, I don't let myself move on until I've written something for every verse. Because I often find myself reading the scriptures but not absorbing what I read, I will have read a couple of pages and just realize I had no idea what I just read, so I would go back and re-read it.

So far its been really good for me, I feel like I'm getting a better feel of what its actually like to "feast upon the scriptures" and it feels good!

When it comes to marking, I am horrible, sorry I can't actually help there.

[zippy_do46]

I too had a problem with marking my scriptures. I was so careful with them that even though they were several years old they looked brand new. Then I accepted a calling where I had to go to several Wards. Something I notice in my travels. I observe several people who treated their scriptures like old friends. These people would pull out their scriptures without an invitation. You would see something on their face when they wanted to write something down. I have seen them do this with laughter, sadness, and wonderment. Some I saw just marked what ever scripture that was being quoted. Some just had a special look that I would see from time to time. They would often give their scriptures an extra squeeze or a gentle pat. I asked myself what would my children see when I was gone. Would they see that my scriptures were "old friends" or would they see scriptures that look only slightly worn? Would they see my concerns, my needs, my love of the scriptures? The first time I marked my scriptures I had tears that dropped on the pages. When I looked down I thought," Some day one of my children will find these tears and wonder why I cryed."
OK, you can see what kind of member I am going to be. A story with every reply. I will try not to do that. I just could not say I color coded my scriptures! lol When I have more then one subject using that scripture I put a straight line by the scripture in the other color. I have a list of colors and how I coded in the front of my scriptures.